Clay Water Brick: Finding Inspiration
from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most
with the Least (Spiegel & Grau)

In her new book, Jessica Jackley, an
entrepreneur and co-founder of Kiva,
the first online microlending platform
for the working poor, credits her dad
for teaching her that her love of the
world and its peoples would get her
through the next day as long as she
stayed true to her heart and mission.

Jackley o�ers a place for other blue-sky thinkers to raise their
voices and be heard. Listen carefully. She convinces us that our
struggles against the odds are the key to our collective survival.

Philip Brady ’77

To Banquet with the Ethiopians:
A Memoir of Life Before the Alphabet
(Broadstone Books)

In his fourth book ofpoetry, Philip Bradyconfronts his ownmortality with wit andmyth. With a sense ofwonder and a greatvocabulary, Bradytakes the reader on aHomerian journey. With asides to theTrojan War, summer camp for cops’kids and a heart attack, a singularnarrative of memory and history,language and longing emerges: “RoyalAgamemnon loved camp life. / Heloved the beach and bottle-shardedasphalt, / The calisthenics and themonkey bars, / The creaking see-saw,

mess, and flag salute. / The Police
Athletic League was a divinity …” At
the end, you have to love the cop’s kid,
his humility and humor, his resilience
and brilliance.

Kelly Bennett Seiler ’95, M’97

Shifting Time (Infinite Words)

Who hasn’t wondered, “What if?”The woman askingthe question in thisprovocative first novelby Kelly BennettSeiler is Texas nativeMeade Peterson, whois living the Englishmajor’s dream cometrue as a successful book editor inNew York City. Despite a fulfillingprofessional life, she can’t stop thinkingabout her first love, Daniel, who diedmuch too young … that is, until shemeets Tanner. Then, on a visit to herhometown, Austin, to award the annualscholarship in Daniel’s name, Meade isshot in a random attack and awakensin a place her GPS would never takeher — an alternate universe whereDaniel still lives. The answers to her“What if?” are more complicated thanshe ever imagined.

Tom Alphin ’02

The Lego Architect (No Starch Press)Tom Alphinmajored incomputer scienceengineering atBucknell andtoday is a programmanager forMicrosoft. He also is a huge fan ofLegos and has parlayed this passioninto his first book — a quirky, nerdyand wonderful collection of modernarchitectural history, beautiful buildingphotos, profiles of Lego artists anddirections on how to emulate someof the world’s best-known structureswith remarkable detail. If you thoughtthe works of Frank Lloyd Wright,Santiago Calatrava and I.M. Pei weretoo complex to be rendered in Legoblocks, think again. This book surprisesand delights.

Glenn Herdling ’86

Piper Houdini: Apprentice of Coney Island
(Wise Herd Enterprises)

Orphaned 12-year-old Piper Weiss is
whisked out of her group home and
taken in by an aunt and uncle she never
knew she had. She can’t believe her
good fortune. They are Bess and Harry